BA axes 21 regional routes and withdraws from two airports

British Airways is to cut 21 routes from its regional network by March, as the airline focuses on winning back business travellers and taking on no-frills carriers.

The company, which had already cut regional routes this year, also said yesterday that its regional carrier, British Airways CitiExpress, would launch three new routes from London City airport in April.

David Evans, the head of BA's UK business, said the move would allow BA "to concentrate our efforts on key markets and launch new routes which customers have been asking for".

Among the services to be withdrawn are Cardiff to Brussels, Aberdeen, Belfast, Jersey and Paris, and Leeds-Bradford to Dublin, Aberdeen, Bristol, Southampton, Isle of Man and Gatwick, British Airways said.

TBI, the regional airports operator, said that British Airways' decision to cut routes from Cardiff would leave it with a £250,000 shortfall in the year to the end of March 2003, and cut passenger numbers by 11,000 in the same period. In an attempt to allay fears about the impact of the move, TBI added that BA's traffic represents 90,000 passengers out of 2.4 million annual footfall at the airport.

A spokeswoman for BA said that the route cuts and transfers would likely cause "a minimum of job losses" at the airline, although the exact number had not yet been decided. "Our aim is to get people jobs," she said.

BA has already cut 13,000 jobs as part its "Future Size and Shape" review, which is intended to slash costs in the face of the recent economic downturn and post-September 11 fall-off in air travel. British Airways and other full-cost airlines are also facing stiff competition from no-frills carriers such as easyJet and Ireland's Ryanair.

The airline's new services, from City airport to Glasgow, Frankfurt and Paris Charles de Gaulle, would augment existing services out of Gatwick, BA said. They will be aimed at the business traveller, traditionally a British Airways stalwart. BA also said it had agreed in principle to transfer 12 aircraft to Eastern Airways, an independently owned niche regional airline.

Shares in BA fell 1.5p to 146p yesterday, while TBI stock fell 7.6 per cent to end at 48.5p.